The invention relates to the field of ear tags for domestic animals, such as cattle and swine.
In early times, ranchers identified their cattle with a brand. Today, however, it is a widespread practice for ranchers to identify their livestock with tags, particularly, ear tags. Ear tags may carry information such as identity, genealogy, health history, weight, age, location, breeding, vaccinations, and other helpful information regarding the animal.
In recent years, the use of identifying tags made of resilient plastic has become common. Plastic tags have the advantage of being legible from greater distances than tags of most sorts, cause less damage to the animal, and are less likely to be accidentally removed than previously used metal tags.
An exemplary ear tag assembly is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,224. The tag comprises an information panel which is marked to provide identification information. The upper portion of this panel is tapered to form a relatively narrow neck. The neck connects the information panel with an anchoring head. The anchoring head is of generally round form having shoulders which extend laterally from opposite sides of the neck. The tag is affixed to the animal by passing the anchoring head through the animal""s ear.
A second exemplary ear tag assembly is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,455. This second tag comprises a male tag member having a projecting portion which is passed through the animal""s ear and is then locked by a receiving portion of a circular female tag member. Once inserted in the receiving portion, the projecting portion cannot be withdrawn, and the tag assembly can only be removed from the animal""s ear by cutting the tag or ear.
To date, text or other information applied to a tag""s information panel has been applied in one of several ways. In some cases, the information is transferred to the tag""s information panel using a hot-stamped foil technique. More recently, the information has been laser printed directly onto the tag""s information panel.
Information printed using these techniques, however, only has a relatively short lifespan. Tag information may fade or lose its readability due to exposure to the elements and abrasion over time. Tags are subjected to extremely harsh conditions that blur or erase the identification information on the panel. For instance, an ear tag may be subjected to heat, sunlight, rain, snow, as well as chewing by other animals. There is also a significant amount of abrasion that typically occurs. This abrasion is often the result of the animal moving its head in and out of restraining structures made of steel or wood used in confined livestock operations, or when the animal is scratching or grooming itself on concrete, steel, or lumber within its environment. Foreign materials such as dirt and manure may accumulate on a tag obscuring any information displayed on the tag. Cleaning or reprinting information on a tag is a cumbersome and inefficient solution. Either action must be repeated for the life of the animal. Consequently, a tag that is resistant to erasure and obscurement by abrasion, foreign materials, and the elements, is tamper resistant, waterproof, and durable, would be highly desirable.
In addition, the types of information, and especially graphics information, that may be printed on a tag""s information panel using existing techniques is extremely limited. Consequently, a tag that is able to display high print-quality text, images, and other information would also be highly desirable.
In one aspect, the present invention is directed to a decorated animal tag comprising a printed label fused to a tag blank. The label preferably comprises thermoplastic layers joined by a heat process to form a single layered label with an underlying writing. Prior to heat treatment, the label preferably comprises at least three layers, a release layer, an aliphatic layer, and a printed layer that comprises printed text and other information. During manufacture, the label may additionally comprise a carrier or backing that is removed prior to or at the time of fusing the layered label to a tag blank. The resulting tag protects the printed text and other information by sealing it between the tag blank and the other thermoplastic materials of the label even when the tag is exposed to an environment that is notoriously hostile and adverse.
In another aspect, the present invention is directed to a method for making an animal tag comprising a layered label bonded or fused to a tag blank. In a preferred embodiment, the method may include the steps of providing a carrier, applying a polymeric resin having a slippery substance to the carrier, and if necessary drying the polymeric resin, to form a release layer, applying an aliphatic layer to the release layer and subsequently drying the aliphatic layer to form a solid aliphatic layer, slitting the carrier with the solid aliphatic layer into strips of a desired width and then winding the carrier and solid aliphatic layer with the carrier side in to form a roll of wound material, die cutting each roll of wound material, and applying a printed layer to the wound material to form a label with text, images, and other information, and bonding the label to a tag blank to form a finished tag.
In another aspect, the present invention relates to a method for making decorated animal tags comprising the steps of creating a pre-printed layered label comprising a printed layer and one or more additional layers, and decorating a tag blank by bonding the layered label to the tag blank such that the printed layer is protected between the tag blank and the one or more additional layers.
In another aspect, the present invention relates to a method for producing animal tags that provide high resolution and high print contrast of both human readable information and machine readable data in the form of text, bar codes, two-dimensional codes, or optical character recognition imprints using protective heat fused thermoplastic layers applied using continuous roll form printing and a continuous roll form manufacturing process.